Hotel trends for 2019

Having looked at ABTA’s choice of ten destinations for 2019 and before we look at the destination forecasts by individual tour operators, (and Just about Travel) what might hotels offer us in 2019?

From one hotel designer, WATG, come some trends of which it is aware. It sees women only journeys as one likelihood. It has highlighted growing interest in women-only ‘voluntourism’ that support local women in remote and undeveloped communities around the world and suggests that 75% of cultural, adventure and nature travellers are female.

It also suggests that by 2030 1.8 billion tourists will be on their road to discovery, impacting on heritage icons, must-see cities and outstanding natural environments across the world. In 2019 WATG says that a problem to face will be for hoteliers to “maximise economic benefits while managing environmental and social downsides everywhere from Maya Bay in Thailand to the Everglades National Park in Florida; this is a global dilemma.”

WATG thinks that “the discovery of bespoke experiences will rise in 2019, as craving the unconventional and the dazzling Instagram moment will be rocket fuelled. From private dinners with influential local figures to obscure local festivals and events in breath-taking locations, the creation of the ‘one-of-a-kind’ will have strong resonance in the year ahead. Celebration travel will grow at a rapid pace and become stronger and more innovative in content.

In what it thinks is a “crazy” world, WATG believes that slow travel will be a trend for 2019 and by slow travel it means travel like river cruises, railway journeys, and allied to this, the appeal of heritage hotels.. It says that even in the much-stereotyped China market, we are seeing shiny modern hotels losing out to heritage hotels, reflecting a desire to understand and embrace history in a rapidly changing built environment.

Sustainability has been a popular trend over the last decade or so. As hotels trumpet their “sustainability” credentials, WATG wonders whether 2019 could see the first refurbishment strategy in hotels where 100 % of the redesign is built upon repurposed and recycled furniture and fittings? WATG thinks that we travellers are increasingly rejecting the built-in obsolescence of so much of what we buy.

Other trends for the forthcoming year that it forecasts include brands facing an ‘Identity Crisis’, as well as consumer’s entering a period of ‘Food Fanaticism.’ Lastly, WATG highlights a trend in hotel resort’s landscape using colour therapy gardens to calm guests.